05-18-2020, 04:06 PM | #21 |
Join Date: Oct 2018
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Re: Keeping characters alive
First, as Skarg points out the players have to learn how to play. So, several sessions with players using a bunch of characters provided by the GM. Each player should get to try out a full range of character designs.
Second, the GM has to decide if they are running a combat focused game with a little roleplay tacked on or a roleplay focused game with combat only when unavoidable. With the former, player death will be unavoidably frequent. In the latter case characters may well survive for months or even years of play. |
05-19-2020, 01:34 AM | #22 |
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Sydney, Australia
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Re: Keeping characters alive
Combat is most exciting if the player(s) are in danger of death. Role-playing tends to be least interesting when characters die frequently, making personalities expendable and relationships ephemeral. So characters must be always about to die but never quite do it. This is arguably the central dilemma of most kinds of role-playing.
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05-19-2020, 05:44 PM | #23 |
Join Date: May 2015
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Re: Keeping characters alive
You're never really about to die if you never do it.
The risk of death has to be actual, or else you're just pretending you're facing that risk. The risk is much much higher before you learn tactics. The way you learn tactics is by understanding what tends to make people die or not die. That's easier to learn when your own characters are dying sometimes. That's why arena combats and adventures where some PCs can and do die tend to be the fastest ways for players to learn. |
05-20-2020, 04:51 PM | #24 | |
Join Date: May 2020
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Re: Keeping characters alive
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05-23-2020, 04:04 AM | #25 |
Join Date: Mar 2018
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Re: Keeping characters alive
When I was introducing TFT to people new to RPGs, I adapted a talent I saw in GURPS: 'Lucky'. I think it cost 2 IQ points. The talent allowed a player to make one-reroll of the dice per few hours of realtime play.
The idea was to let new players learn how combat works, learn what happens in an RPG, and start to feel some attachment to their character. Obviously it's entirely too powerful for experienced players. |
05-23-2020, 04:54 AM | #26 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Carrboro, NC
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Re: Keeping characters alive
One easy way to help avoid sudden character death is to count double or triple damage rolls against them as regular damage. Not many characters can survive, say, triple damage from a longbow for 24 hits, but if it's only 8, then the story can continue.
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05-23-2020, 08:21 PM | #28 |
Join Date: May 2015
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Re: Keeping characters alive
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05-23-2020, 08:24 PM | #29 |
Join Date: May 2015
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Re: Keeping characters alive
The story can continue after one or more or even all PCs die, too, and IME/IMO it's usually a better story (and much more importantly, a better game) if that's allowed to happen, and it's best if players and GM accept that that is supposed to be a possibility and something that leads to more interesting play than trying to force it not to happen.
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06-05-2020, 12:24 AM | #30 | |
Join Date: Jul 2018
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Re: Keeping characters alive
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